Narratives

Sane people hate to sound like conspiracy theorists.

Really, we do.

Nevertheless... Check out CNN's homepage. Heck, see if you can find screen shots for the past couple days. Iran, front and center? Honduras, maybe? Uh, no. Michael Jackson (not one, nor twice, but thrice above the fold today). Also, "Disco tune saves man's life", "Biden visits Iraq for Fourth of July weekend", "Kids with autism graduate, achieve dreams"... oh wait. There is one on Iran, buried in the 21 articles under "Latest News". "Latest News", by the way, includes all the articles listed above (except the MJ ones. One of those is "Latest", one is "Breaking", and one is "Most Popular". Sounds kinda like your high school yearbook, doesn't it). In fact, the autism article is apparently not only breaking, but more important than the Iran article-- it's the first listed. The Iranian headline reads "Attacks, arrests slowing online news from Iran". It could just as easily read, "Utter lack of attention from American media dampens revolutionaries".

And as far as Honduras goes, not a single article above the fold on my 24-inch monitor. Meanwhile, Obama throws his support behind the leftist power-grabbing law-breaking thug that was the president of Honduras, while a gazillion people protest in favor of the new president. Apparently it's okay to meddle in this one. And to throw our support behind Hugo Chavez, the Castro brothers, and Daniel Ortega. Lovely. Doesn't that look like the lefty hall of fame? Obama, Chavez, Castro, and Ortega. Maybe we could call them COCO for short? OCCO? Such nice abbreviatory possibilities.

The U.S. foreign policy is an abomination. And the media is growing more complicit every day (that's the conspiracy theory part). Every White House tries to control the narrative, but they've never had a press corp so bent on helping them (maybe their tingly legs have something to do with it). Even Helen Thomas called the administration/media collusion out. I'm not a fan of Thomas', but dang, this is impressive (h/t Instapundit):

Gibbs: “Which question did you object to at the town hall meeting, Helen?”

Thomas: “It's a pattern. It isn't the question—”

Gibbs: “What's a pattern?”

Thomas: “It's a pattern of controlling the press.”

Gibbs: “How so? Is there any evidence currently going on that I'm controlling the press--poorly, I might add.”

Thomas: “Your formal engagements are pre-packaged.”

Gibbs: “How so?”

Reid: “Well, and controlling the public—”

Thomas: “How so? By calling reporters the night before to tell them they're going to be called on. That is shocking.”

Gibbs: “We had this discussion ad nauseam and—”

Thomas: “Of course you would, because you don't have any answers.”

Go read the whole transcript. It's fatalistic schadenfreude-- schadenfreude because FINALLY someone is "speaking truth to power". Fatalistic because you know it will make no difference at all.